


The Pizza Boy

by agentsimmons



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adorable Bruce Banner, Adorable Tony Stark, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Pizza Place, Crush at First Sight, Crushes, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Pizza, Science Boyfriends, Science Bros, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Doesn't Like Being Handed Things, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 13:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10877619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentsimmons/pseuds/agentsimmons
Summary: Now Tony eats pizza everyday.





	The Pizza Boy

The door to Rhodey’s apartment rang and Tony lazily rolled his head in the direction of the door. He then rolled it back to look at his friend. Rhodey was still on the phone arguing with his apparent idiot of a lab partner. Tony sighed when he looked at him and pointed to his wallet on the coffee table.

“Fine. I got it,” Tony groused and grabbed it before trudging to the door. He really hated pizza deliveries. It meant having a box shoved in his face. Annoying. Usually followed by the receipt and— “Hot damn.”

The pizza delivery boy blinked. “Um, well, I don’t think our pizza’s _that_ good, but it’s here in less than thirty minutes as promised. That’ll be nineteen dollars and fifty-one cents.”

Tony opened the wallet, but he couldn’t keep his eyes from darting between the ridiculously attractive delivery boy and the unfortunate pizza box he would hand him, effectively killing the mood. Unless…

Tony pulled out a twenty and then another. “Here you go.” He handed the cash to him.

Bruce, according to his nametag, furrowed his brow. “I think there’s been a mistake.”

“It’s called a tip,” Tony said and reached for the boxes discreetly while Bruce was preoccupied with starting at the cash like it was a trick. Grabbing something on his own wasn’t a problem.

Unfortunately, Bruce noticed out of the corner of his eye, made an endearing sort of ‘oh’ sound, and became attentive to his job again right when Tony least expected it.

And, _of course_ , Tony backed away like it was a physical threat. Damn, that was embarrassing.

Bruce furrowed his brow and Rhodey looked over at them. “Hey, you okay, Tony?” He had his hand over the mouth of the phone.

“Of course,” Tony insisted, determined to pretend like nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

“Of course,” Rhodey echoed with a roll of his eyes. “Well, when you’re done there maybe you can,” he removed his hand, “explain to my lab partner that Asimov knew what he was talking about when he suggested sixty-thousand km/s as a practical upper limit for human travel.”

“Sure,” Bruce answered and Tony’s eyes widened, watching as he came into the apartment and set the pizza down on the coffee table. “Assuming we can’t find an alternative source to aid in hypertravel. I’d say we’re more likely to achieve fast long distance or even intergalactic travel through the use of teleportation. Or maybe portals.” He shrugged.

Rhodey blinked, looking as impressed as Tony was. “Damn. That’d be awesome,” he said. “D’you hear that?” he said into his phone and then wandered out of the room.

“So, what? Do you dabble in physics when you’re not delivering pizzas directly to the table?” Tony asked, looking over the boy who was now potentially more attractive than before. Bruce looked at him for a long moment before giving a casual shrug. “Thanks, by the way,” Tony decided to add.

“Hey, I get it. I didn’t mean to trigger you,” Bruce said, turning back toward the door. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I’m not ashamed,” Tony countered, following after him. “It’s just…”

“Don’t want to give the tabloids something completely normal to make a big deal out of?” Tony’s eyes widened again. “Look, I don’t have any plans of spilling the 411 on Tony Stark when I leave here,” he assured him as he moved into the hall. “You seem to keep them busy enough as is,” he teased dryly, turning around to look at him, and Tony chuckled. There was a short, awkward lull until Bruce, sheepishly added, “But you know, twenty dollars really is way too much for a tip. All I did was deliver a pizza.” He pulled out the additional twenty and looked at it.

Tony looked him over as he folded his arms and leaned against the doorpost. “I’m not going to miss twenty dollars,” he said, hitching the shoulder not resting against the frame. “And you’d be surprised how many people would have been an asshole about that little incident. Or they wouldn’t have gotten the picture and just annoyed me further.”

Bruce furrowed his brow for a moment before shrugging and pocketing the twenty. “Guess I know a thing or two about triggers,” he said, a slightly rueful tone to his voice. “Hope you enjoy your pizza. You probably want to eat it before it gets cold,” he said as way of announcing his departure. “Although if you ask me—”

“It tastes better cold,” they said at the same time.

Bruce stopped mid-turn and glanced at him. Tony blinked in surprise, pushing up off the door, before smiling widely at him. Bruce gave such a small smile in return that Tony almost wouldn’t have noticed it if he wasn’t paying such close attention, but something about that made the gesture seem more genuine – like he couldn’t help but smile in return.

Bruce left before anything else could be said and Tony stood in the doorway, staring down the apartment hall in a stupor.

"That kid actually shut my partner up," Rhodey said, coming back into the room behind him. "I hope you tipped him. You did remember to tip him, right? Tone? Tony? Tony!"

"Huh?" Tony spun back around to see the questioning look on his friend's face. "Oh, yeah. I tipped him." He finally came back into the apartment and closed the door. "I owe you a twenty."

Rhodey's brow pinched for a second. "You tipped him a twenty?"

"Yeah, got a problem with that?"

Rhodey’s face relaxed into a sly, knowing look. He shook his head. "You know it'll be weird now. Giving the guy a big tip and then propositioning him."

"Who said anything about propositioning him?"

Rhodey snorted. "Your eyes. That's who. I noticed."

"I was impressed by his unexpected knowledge regarding quantum physics."

"Mhmm."

"Honest."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just eat and start our weekend chill, man."

"I'll eat it when it gets cold," Tony said, flopping back down on the couch.

Rhodey rolled his eyes at him. "That's still nasty.  _You're_  nasty."

"You know you love me," Tony called after him as Rhodey headed toward the kitchen. "Grab me a beer."

"You're not 21 yet," he called back in a prickly manner. Rhodey would grab one for him anyway.

Tony glanced down at the pizza box and idly mused if there were any rules on how soon was too soon to order pizza again.

*

The first time Tony ordered another pizza, he got some kid who was definitely not Bruce. He didn’t even look old enough to have his license yet. Tony wasn’t interested in barely sixteen year-olds. Especially if they didn’t look like Bruce.

The second time Tony ordered another pizza, he got a pretty, definitely college-aged girl who practically melted the minute she recognized him. It was tempting since Tony was definitely frustrated enough from having his expectations sunk again, but he was singularly focused at the moment. All he satisfied her with was some baseless flirtation and a wink when she gave him her number. He threw it away and put the pizza in the fridge to get cold as soon as she was gone.

Tony debated whether or not he should even order another pizza, already tired of disappointment and strangers handing him pizza, but Tony was nothing if not relentless. For good reason because the third time he ordered another pizza, Tony opened the door of his single dorm room to a familiar and still good-looking face. Brown eyes blinked owlishly behind glasses when they recognized him.

“Hey,” Tony greeted him in an equally surprised manner before Bruce could get the wrong impression. Or the right one. “It’s the pizza delivery physicist.”

Bruce visibly relaxed and gave a rusty chuckle. “Here with your pizza in less than thirty.” He raised the box a little. “No portals necessary.” Tony barked out a laugh, liking him more by the second. Bruce darted his eyes around. “So, um, how are we going to do this?”

Tony’s amusement fell away, his mind suddenly reeling with all the possible answers to that question. Then a glance at Bruce’s fidgeting told him he definitely meant the pizza. He remembered Tony’s quirk and wanted to accommodate him appropriately.

Tony wasn’t used to his heart twitching the same way other parts of him did.

“I’ll get your cash,” Tony said. He stepped aside and gestured for him to enter.”

“Please, no more than one twenty this time,” Bruce insisted as he came into the dorm room, glanced around, and then set the pizza on Tony’s empty desk.

When Bruce turned back to face him, Tony held out a twenty and a five. Bruce pursed his lips, looking like he was torn between amusement and perhaps being offended. Finally, his face cracked and he laughed outright. Tony liked the sound.

“Very funny.” He took the cash. “Alright. Loophole acknowledged and accepted.” He shook his head. “But only because college is expensive for some of us, even with scholarships.”

Tony furrowed his brow. He’d thought maybe Bruce was still in high school since he didn’t look older than eighteen. Had he only just started?

“So you’re in college?” Tony turned to look at Bruce, the other on his way out.

Bruce stopped and turned back. “Well, you know. They let anyone in these days,” he deflected with a shrug and no small amount of self-deprecation. “I’m still working on the physicist credentials in my title. Ah,” he added, lips turning up in a thin, wry grin, “but don’t tell my boss. He might fire me for not being legit, you know?”

Tony laughed and shook his head. “Maybe you should add comedian to that title.”

Bruce chortled and ducked his head. “No, see, my jokes are pretty limited to the audience. In fact, pretty sure you’re the only one who’s ever laughed.” He ducked his head further, looking at his shoes.

“Huh.” Tony studied him. “Guess that means we must speak the same language.”

Bruce looked up again and their eyes locked. After a few seconds of just looking at each other, Tony decided to go for it. He took a step in, but was startled by the sound of an alarm.

“Oh, uh,” Bruce glanced at his watch and fiddled with it. “That’s my pizza timer,” he explained. “I have another pizza in the car. And since I haven’t quite gotten my teleporter up and running yet I should probably go.” He backed out of the door. “It was nice delivering your pizza again.” His eyes widened and color crept into his cheeks, as if he couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “Enjoy,” he said and practically fled.

Tony hurried to the door and saw that he was already halfway down the hall as briskly as he was walking. Tony chortled and shook his head. Bruce was something else. Something else that Tony was starting to think he could like a lot. A _whole_ lot.

He shut the door to his room and flopped down onto his bed. As he lay there he committed the encounter to memory with too wide a grin on his face as he did. He felt a little like some stereotypical lovestruck teen in a teen flick. It wasn’t until he got to the part about college that he scrunched his face and sat up again.

He glanced at the pizza box and then the door.

Was Bruce really a physics student? Was he at MIT too? Was it possible Tony had met the most perfect person in the world?

*

Tony was rudely awakened from his happy pizza coma, where he’d been dreaming about a very special delivery no less, by a foot kicking his bed repeatedly. He opened his eyes to see Rhodey standing in front of him with his arms crossed and that look he got when he was about to be the concerned older friend who felt responsible for his well-being.

So he was two years older? It wasn’t that big of a difference. He really needed to chill out sometimes. He was definitely cut out for the military.

“You could have at least let me get to the part where I force feed him pizza,” Tony groused, sitting up in a strategic fashion and rubbing his eyes.

Rhodey threw up his hands. “Okay, whoa. Violated. I don’t want to know about your kinky ass dreams about the pizza boy.”

Tony snorted and shot him an incredulous look. “I was kidding. Nobody was force feeding anyone.” He paused. “Pizza anyway.”

Rhodey glared at him. “Well, you sure as hell have enough pizza for that sort of thing if you wanted,” he said, walking around the small room and taking in the sight of pizza boxes scattered about, all with a judgmental glare.

“I forgot to set them out on trash day,” Tony said, moving to sit on the edge of his bed.

Rhodey turned and faced him with another folded-arm scowl. “This has to stop. It’s out of control.”

“It’s not really,” Tony waved him off, “and I can’t stop now. I’m on a streak. Bruce has delivered the pizza the last six times in a row. I’ve got to go for the lucky seven.”

“Oh my god.” He let his arms fall and looked up at the ceiling. “Oh my god. Do you even hear yourself, Tony?” He looked back at him. “You are obsessed with a pizza delivery boy. This is like, like stalking or something. I’m pretty sure he could get a restraining order.” Tony frowned. “Have you Googled him too?”

“No,” Tony defended himself sharply. “I’m doing this the old fashioned way. I like the mystery.” Rhodey raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I started to, but lost my nerve,” he confessed.

“You lost your nerve? _You_?” Tony shrugged and looked away. He waited for the inevitable laughing fit and then rolled his eyes until Rhodey had gotten it out of his system. “Okay, this is sadder than I thought. You can’t keep doing this. As your best friend and wing-man, I’m putting an end to this tragic affair with pizza.”

Tony looked back at him. “What?”

“Tony, listen to me very carefully.” Rhodey fixed him with a look. “I’ll give you a week to get this settled on your own. Otherwise I’m marching my ass down to that pizza place and telling this Bruce kid and everyone else listening about your embarrassing crush.” Rhodey walked to the door. He stopped, looked around at all the boxes again and shook his head. He looked at him. “This is pathetic, man. You’ve gained at least ten pounds from pizza.” Tony frowned and looked down at his stomach. “By the way, I’m having a party at my place this weekend,” Rhodey tacked on before opening the door.

“Will there be pizza?” Tony asked just to be contrary.

“ _Pathetic_ ,” was Rhodey’s answer, along with shutting the door harder than necessary. Tony snorted.

A few minutes later, Tony puffed out his cheeks and made a critical survey of the room as well. He let the air out with a sigh. Rhodey was right. Tony needed to face facts and do something more concrete about his… thing… for Bruce. Maybe he had let it get out of control.

It had just been easier this way. It was just casual conversation with a pizza boy. Just casual conversation that happened to make him simultaneously want to answer the door with flowers in hand _and_ drag the pizza boy into his room. Just casual conversation with absolutely no pressure on him to admit that he might actually want to _date_ this one.

Tony groaned and laid back down again. He didn’t even know for certain if Bruce was into guys even if he suspected it. He didn’t know anything. Besides the fact that he was good looking, adorable, very likely brilliant, funny and maybe a little bit tortured.

And perfect. Tony knew he was perfect.

He closed his eyes and pursed his lips. There was nothing for it. He needed to take the plunge. Where else was he going to find another pizza delivery physicist anyway?

*

Tony jumped up from the couch the moment he heard the doorbell. Thankfully the party was already in full swing, with noisy guests and thumping music, so nobody else seemed ready to answer it before he could. His hand paused on the knob and he took a breath. If Bruce was on the other side, he could do this. He _wanted_ to do this.

He opened the door and, sure enough, Bruce stood there with several pizzas and a crooked smile on his face. “Well, I was going to say maybe you should really reconsider your dietary choices before your metabolism slows down and it’s too late,” Bruce started before looking past him, “but in this case pizza makes sense so I’ll wait until next time to judge you.”

“Comedian,” Tony remarked.

He’d already paid for the pizzas ahead of time so Tony started to move aside on instinct. Then he remembered his plan and stopped, startling Bruce a little. “Actually, about next time, I… That is, well…” He fumbled fantastically while Bruce gave him a strange look. Tony cleared his throat. “Actually, the reason I ordered pizza _this time_ is I’ve been wondering, that is, meaning to ask you if you wanted to go to the party. With me. Specifically.”

For a long moment all Bruce did was blink. Then his expression turned incredulous. He glanced past Tony again. “This party?” he finally asked.

“Yes.”

“This party right now?”

“Yes, obviously.” Tony was confused now.

“So, this party that I’m delivering pizzas to, correct?” Tony furrowed his brow, but didn’t answer. “Okay, one more time, just so I can make sure I’ve got this straight. You called my job, hoping I’d be working and would be the one to deliver the pizzas, all so you could ask me to this party…” He raised one eyebrow. “Even though I’m working?”

Tony’s eyes widened and he ducked his head. “Yes?”

Bruce laughed the most riotously Tony had heard yet. “I thought you were a genius.” Tony looked back at him with an exaggerated frown. “I’m sorry, honest.” He tried to stifle his laughter. “I just…” He failed, shaking his head and laughing some more.

Tony started laughing too. How could he not when it was completely hilarious. He was so far gone, and probably stuffed with far too much pizza, that his brain really hadn’t thought it through.

“You’re right,” he said with a nod, once they’d recomposed themselves. “Not my best plan.”

“Well, actually,” Bruce shrugged, “I _could_ probably get off early. We’re pretty over-scheduled.”

“Really?”

Bruce shrugged again and handed him the pizzas. “Yeah, sure. I just have to call my boss real quick. And I—” His eyes widened. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry!”

Tony furrowed his brow. Bruce glanced down at the pizzas and then back up at him. Tony did the same.

“Oh.” It finally dawned on him. “Oh, I didn’t even… Huh. I didn’t even notice.” He smiled. “I guess I was too busy thinking about how you essentially just said you’d like to be at this party with me.” He turned and held up the pizzas. “Pizza’s here!” he announced and then set them down before moving with Bruce out into the much quieter hall.

Immediately he noticed Bruce looked like he was fighting a blush. “I, uh, yeah. Yeah, I’d like that,” Bruce admitted, scrubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “But, um, I should probably tell you… Um, I’ve maybe been taking advantage of your pizza addiction to uh... To try and see you.”

“What?”

“Mhmm. Yeah, sorry.” He was looking at the floor hard enough that Tony suspected he wanted it to open up and swallow him. “It’s weird, but I noticed your name came up on a lot of the tickets so I started, um, working extra hours and maybe keeping an eye on the orders so I could deliver the pizza to you whenever possible. Like I said, weird. Sorry.”

Tony’s heart did that annoying twitching thing again and he laughed before he could think better of it, causing Bruce to look up at him with an almost wounded expression that Tony decided immediately he hated.

“Bruce,” Tony shook his head, “I don’t have a pizza addiction.”

Bruce furrowed his brow and tilted his head. “Okay, maybe you don’t want to call it that, but—”

“I have a pizza boy addiction.” Bruce’s face went blank with shock. “So, if he’s still interested in the party, I’d like to finally get to know him. His last name for starters. And if he’s really studying physics at MIT.”

“Harvard actually,” Bruce answered, swallowing visibly.

“Harvard?” Tony turned up his nose. “Oh well,” he sighed, “nobody’s perfect after all.”

“Hey.” Again, Bruce looked amused and offended both. “Alright, let me just call my boss,” he said, pulling out his phone. “If he says yes, I’ll just have to head back, turn in the cash and stuff, and then clock out.”

“How about I go with you,” Tony offered, not sure he’d be able to endure waiting for Bruce to come back.

Bruce blinked as he held his phone up to his ear. He smiled and said, “Well, only if you want, but okay. Yeah, I’d like that.”

Tony smiled back and waited for Bruce’s boss to come through, which he did. Of course, Tony would have found a way around it had he not.

“I…” Bruce hung up the call in a stunned manner. “It’s starting to sink in that I was just asked to a party by Tony Stark and… I can’t believe it.”

“Well you should. Tony Stark knows a great catch when he sees one. Harvard aside,” he ribbed, “it’s not every day a cute pizza delivery physicist comes along. Hell, I’m the one who can’t believe it.” He smiled and then gestured with one hand. "Shall we?"

Bruce blinked a few times, like he didn't believe him, but they started down the hall just the same.

“You realize Harvard is literally thousands of dollars cheaper and offers virtually the same opportunities as MIT right?”

“And comedian.” Tony threw an arm around Bruce’s shoulders as they walked. “I forgot about comedian.”

Bruce threw his head back and laughed, shaking it a little. Tony’s heart twitched again, but that was okay. He was starting to get used to it.

*

Incidentally, Tony and Bruce never made it back to the party, opting for a more practical, and definitely more private, first date instead.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. lmao could that title/summary be any worse? (both inspired by that old Jonas Bros show where they had a song called "I Fell In Love With The Pizza Girl" because I used to stan them)  
> 2\. TODAY is my two year Avengers-sary. Two years ago today, I first contributed to the Avengers fandom. I can hardly believe that. I've been hoarding all my recent fic endeavors because I wanted to make sure I had something to post in celebration of that.  
> 3\. Though... this isn't the fic I was going to post for today, originally. But I got 30,000 words into the other (it's something I've been working on almost exclusively during my depression, the only thing where words weren't being stubborn) only to hit a wall. I freaked out about it, then randomly remembered my pizza boy idea, the one that was giving me trouble for pretty much forever, only to finally get a hang on it. So, um, thanks wall?  
> Finally, thank you to everyone who commented on my last update in regards to my depression. It meant, and has meant, so very much to me, especially when things were really really bleak. I'm still a work in progress, but it's getting there. I just want to say I miss spamming the Bruce/Tony tag with all of my cracky, fluffy, dadfic, just plain weird things and the feedback that never fails to amaze me when I do, but thank you for all reminding me to take care of myself first. I hope that everyone is doing well!


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